view raw text
June Harris First Girl Conditioner in Michigan Wyoming Lassie Among Training Patrol at Detroit Race Course DETROIT RACE COURSE, Livonia, Mich., June 25. — For the first time in Michigan racing, a girl has joined the dawn training patrol — at the Detroit Race Course. Shes June Harris, 25, from Ft. Worth, Texas, the first "exercise girl" to work at a Michigan track and one of half a dozen such girls in the nation. The Texas brown-head . reports every morning at 4:45 p. m., climbs on her pony and proceeds to put 10 or 20 race horses through their training rigors. Unruffled by a 3:45 a. m. alarm, she loves the pay and enjoys doing something thats been in her blood since she was raised on a Wyoming ranch. She has office training, but wants no part of that kind of work. # And while racing is a robust profession almost exclusively under male command, June doesnt find adjustment rough or crude. If she encounters accidental profanity, "I just dont hear it;" and she adds, "when they know Im around, they are very considerate. I havent yet run into anything that sounded like they resented a girl being in the business." Exercise "boys", to use the generic term, are paid two dollars for each horse "ponied." June has been handling from 10 ta 20 assignments a day, and there are seven days in a week, so its obvious why she prefers the remuneration to that given for many secretarial positions. "I started out on this work down in New Orleans," she relates, "and from the outset, Ive never had any trouble getting assignments. I think they discovered that a girl can be reliable, that shell show up on time. I also have a wonderful, w,ell-broken pony who knows what to do, and thats the most important thing of all." She bought the gray pony, named Junior, when he was two years old hes now nine and broke him herself. During her young lifetime, June has been~on the rodeo circuit, operated a ranch, run a riding stable, and devoted a couple of war years to civil service employment. Previously, she worked an entire season as exercise girl at New Orleans and St. Louis. She moved north this summer as part of a natural expansion of her profession, but there may be a time factor involved. "Its possible," she admits, "that Ill be married in the fall." ; The man involved is a van driver — in the horse hauling business. — j
